Mobility turnaround: Will Frankfurt ban cars from 2035?
Fewer cars, more space for public transport and walking and cycling - this is Frankfurt's master plan to achieve the city's climate goals and become climate neutral by 2035. Above all, an expanded electric bus line and the promotion of green forms of mobility are to play an important role in this. Will cars be completely banned from the environmental zone?
By 2035, 80 percent of the people in the city are to choose to cover their daily distance on foot, by bicycle or by public transport. That is, in fact, Frankfurt's master plan, the draft of which was presented last week. A plan which is not only based on infrastructure development, but which is to thoroughly consider the mobility needs of the citizens. They were also involved in the conception phase. Together with the city administration, they decided that the metropolis had until 2035 to become climate-neutral. More concretely, the annual emission of climate-damaging CO2 of 1.67 million tonnes must drop to zero within twelve years. To achieve this, concrete measures must be implemented, Siefert continues.
The citizens themselves are to give the starting signal for more sustainable urban mobility. By 2035, Frankfurt residents should be travelling more on foot, by bicycle or by public transport - and less by car. However, according to Wolfgang Siefert (Greens), who will be in charge of mobility from July, this does not mean a general "ban on cars". For there is still a "traffic share earmarked for motorised individual transport", but this must be reduced by at least 10 per cent. How can this be achieved? By introducing a city toll or by tightening the environmental zone in the form of diesel driving bans or a zero-emission zone?
In addition, there would be the extensive expansion of the necessary infrastructure, for example footpaths and cycle paths, as well as the public transport network. Consequently, the plans could become particularly expensive for the city. Primarily for the targeted further development of the bus network - including electric buses and the corresponding charging infrastructure. Mass transport ultimately represents a particularly effective alternative to car traffic in terms of kilometer protection. The state and federal government will therefore also financially support the mobility plan and the corresponding transformation of urban transport.
Pedestrian traffic, however, is considered to be even cleaner and will also be given a prominent place in the Frankfurt plan. One of the key measures contained in it is the creation of a pedestrian traffic concept to promote the quality of footpaths and thus the attractiveness of the cleanest mode of transport. At the same time, the city aims to bring "more efficiency" to traffic management - among other things with the goal of enabling motorised and non-motorised traffic to coexist in a traffic-safe manner. However, motorised traffic should still retain certain privileges for commercial purposes, such as the allocation of dedicated parking spaces.
Finally, as the head of strategic education planning Heiko Nickel (Greens) points out, all key measures are already in the works. Now the large Hessian city has more than 10 years to get the planned funds from paper to road.